Dear Parents and students,
Wishing you all a very happy Earth Day. Let us all make the effort to keep our
Mother Earth clean and green. Also try to use all the natural resources with great care so that
everyone can have them for their need.
Please read the material we are sending you and listen to the song -
(Teri hai Zameen tera assman).
With many prayers
Sr. Clara Dewan RJM
THE FIRST EARTH DAY
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the
birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
As we prepare to mark 50 years of Earth Day in 2020, let’s take
a look at the last half-century of mobilization for action:
ORIGINS OF EARTH DAy
The first Earth Day in
1970 mobilized millions of Americans for the protection of the
planet. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at
the time — took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to
protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.
The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental
movement and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event.
Earth Day led to passage of
landmark environmental laws in the United States, including the Clean Air,
Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts. Many countries soon adopted similar
laws, and in 2016, the United Nations chose Earth Day as the day to sign the
Paris Climate Agreement into force.
“Despite that amazing success
and decades of environmental progress, we find ourselves facing an even more
dire, almost existential, set of global environmental challenges, from loss of
biodiversity to climate change to plastic pollution, that call for action at
all levels of government,” said Denis Hayes, the organizer of the first Earth
Day in 1970 and Earth Day Network’s Board Chair Emeritus.
“Progress has slowed, climate
change impacts grow, and our adversaries have become better financed,” said
Earth Day Network president Kathleen Rogers. “We find ourselves today in a
world facing global threats that demand a unified global response. For Earth
Day 2020, we will build a new generation of environmentalist activists,
engaging millions of people worldwide.”
EARTH DAY 2020
THEME:
Climate Action
The enormous challenges — but also the vast opportunities — of
acting on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing
topic for the 50th anniversary. Climate change represents the biggest challenge
to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world
habitable.
At the end of 2020, nations will be expected to increase their
national commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. The time is
now for citizens to call for greater global ambition to tackle our climate
crisis. Unless every country in the world steps up – and steps up with urgency
and ambition — we are consigning current and future generations to a dangerous
future.
Earth Day 2020 will be far more than a day. It must be a
historic moment when citizens of the world rise up in a united call for the
creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery that we need to meet our climate
crisis and seize the enormous opportunities of a zero-carbon future.
On Earth Day,
April 22, 2020, we have two crises: One is the COVID-19 coronavirus
pandemic. The other is a slowly building disaster for our climate.
We can, will and must solve both challenges. The world was not prepared for the novel
coronavirus. But we still have time to prepare — in every part of the world —
for the climate crisis.
The coronavirus pandemic does not shut us down. Instead, it reminds us of what’s at
stake in our fight for the planet. If we don’t demand change to transform our
planet and meet our climate crisis, our current state will become the new
normal — a world where pandemics and extreme weather events span the globe,
leaving already marginalized and vulnerable communities even more at
risk.
 |
On April 22, tune into Earth Day
online.
|
The world’s largest
civic event is going digital for the first time in its history. We’ll demand
that leaders take science seriously, listen to their people and push for action
at every level of society to stop the rising tide of climate change.
We can make a better world for everyone. Tell everyone you know about April 22 and join us at earthday.org as we flood the world with messages of hope, optimism and, above all — action.
We can make a better world for everyone. Tell everyone you know about April 22 and join us at earthday.org as we flood the world with messages of hope, optimism and, above all — action.
Together, we can SAVE the Earth:
Speak up
Act
Vote
Educate
Exercise your right to express, promote and defend your ideas.
While we may not be able to assemble in-person, we still can create a mass
outcry and a mass outpouring of support online.
Take action: Share what you’re doing, today
and from where you are: What
are you fighting for — it could be for your children, for frontline
communities, for safe water to drink. What compels you to act, and why are you
in this fight?
Add your voice to this global demand for action with the shared
hashtag #EarthDay2020.
ACT:
Everyone can do something. Join us on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day — April 22 — as we issue 24 actions for the planet that you can take now, wherever you are.
Take action: Join
us on earthday.org and on social media (@earthdaynetwork) for 24 hours of
action on Earth Day. Every hour, on the
hour, we’ll have a new, powerful way for you to VOTE:
More than 65 countries host major elections in 2020. Make your
demands known by voting for those who will defend the planet.
No elections in your country? Too young to vote? Demand change
with civic action — call your representatives, tweet at your policymakers,
volunteer for a candidate. There are so many ways to tell your leaders that
human and planetary health must be the top political priority.
Take action: Send a message to your leaders on April 22,
and get registered, educated and ready to vote in your elections in 2020. Throughout April, Earth Day
Network will have ways to get involved in local, state and national politics as
we launch our Vote
Earth campaign.
EDUCATE:
The world’s first Earth Day in 1970 seized the power of
education through campus-wide teach-ins to spark conversation, engage local
communities and inform change.
Now, as Earth Day goes digital, we’re bringing teach-ins to a
global scale as well. A dozen of the world’s most inspiring musicians, artists,
scientists and thought leaders will use the power of digital teach-ins to share
their experience, their expertise and their lessons to a global audience across
the 24 hours of Earth Day. Tune in live to get informed and get inspired!
Take action: We need you to share your knowledge
and wisdom as well. Bring
your friends, your family, your coworkers and your neighbors into this global
digital conversation to share how you’re taking local action to meet this
global crisis. And tune into our 24 hours of action as we feature digital
teach-ins and interactive discussions from some of the world’s most inspiring
voices for change.
On Earth Day 2020, we seize all the tools and actions that we
have, big and small, to change our lives and change our world, not for one day,
but forever.
And what other choice do we have? We’re all in this together, and together, we can change the world to build a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable future for all.
And what other choice do we have? We’re all in this together, and together, we can change the world to build a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable future for all.
______________________
